This Starbucks Is Boring, Making Everyone Sad

You’ve heard of “Dumb Starbucks,” but what about the Ugly Starbucks? A former burger stand has re-opened as a Starbucks, and residents are not happy. There’s no seating outside, they complain there isn’t enough parking, and the exterior is uninspired and hideous.

If a new Starbucks has opened near you recently, it most likely is a re-purposed former fast-food outlet that already had a drive-thru window. The new outlet in Highland Park was most recently called Classic Burger, and its exterior was pretty classic, if not necessarily inspired.

Even the location’s positive Yelp reviews aren’t exactly effusive praise. One review gives the Starbucks four stars mainly because of what it doesn’t have: poor people hanging around. “This location is unique is a sense that it’s a walk-up window only with DRIVE THRU, not a store location where you can hang out inside, which is smart because the area could have a lot of vagrants,” wrote Tany. A selling point of this particular Starbucks, we suppose. A compliment to the Starbucks…not so much.

Local blog Eastsider is more annoyed at the shop’s design, which features a coat of tan paint, new shingles on the roof, and then a few river rocks and some salvaged wood and overall has “no legible design intent.” It wouldn’t have been hard to turn the burger stand into something more interesting, maybe a stand influenced by the neighborhood’s preserved Craftsman homes. Or does the design of a building matter all that much when you’re just trying to get through the drive-thru line as quickly as possible?